Melissa Rosenberg on breaking dawn twist

The gloves were off [in Breaking Dawn: Part 2]. The very first moment when Bella squeezes Edward, and he’s like “Uh, I can’t breathe” — that just starts the ball rolling. They played it very comedically. When you have Bella turn into a vampire, you get humor. And it’s less about the tortures of love and more about kicking some butt. Her taking down the mountain lion, and her throwing Jacob around, kicking his ass — that was just so satisfying after four episodes.

I don’t think there’s anything in there that actually does deviate from the book. The thing is, the book is all told from Bella’s point of view — for instance, Jacob tells Bella, “Hey, I told your dad I’m a werewolf.” Stephenie can’t write that scene because Bella’s not there. But I get to write it! [Laughs] That is so much fun for me. My general approach throughout all the movies was to take the characters on the same emotional journey that they take in the books. Stephenie always had, contractually, a list of certain things that could or could not happen — there cannot be any fangs, no one can die in the movie that doesn’t die in the book. I never actually really looked at those lists, because essentially what the lists say is, “Adapt the book. Don’t use the book as a launching pad for a whole different story about how Bella is a CIA agent.”

[The cast] didn’t find out [about the battle scene] until I had finished the script, so it was many, many months later when they first got on set. I wasn’t there, but I can guarantee you they were pretty psyched because they got to do some pretty fun stuff. And at the premiere, it was just — the screaming just went on and on. Every time someone would die, people were just screaming, “Oh my God!” And then when they realized what the truth of it was, they screamed all the more. It was so funny. My only problem at the premieres is, I love watching it with that kind of energy and the fans — but they scream so much that they step on my lines. [Laughs] And I’m like, “Shut up, that was a really funny line right there! You just missed it!”